How operators can get more private charter quotes

In a hyper-connected world, it’s interesting how it still feels difficult to reach customers. If anything, the vastness of information out there has made it even harder for customers to find you. 

For private jet charters, there’s new and old ways of reaching customers and getting more charter requests in. 

Old school: 

• Brokers 
• Personal contacts
• Print media 
• Partnerships

New-ish: 

• Your own website 
• Broker software 
• Social media 
• Online advertising

Both ways, there is a lot of effort that needs to be put into fighting for visibility. Right now, most end customers want it all: a fast solution, a good price, and the right experience. So, they’re going online. 

The question for charter companies is how to position themselves for that visibility. 

Right now, we’re at an interesting inflection point where business aviation has an opportunity to become of use and reach new customer groups that hadn’t necessarily considered private jets prior to the pandemic. 

Here are some ways that private jet operators can reach more end customers and get more charter requests in:

Improve your website to show the end customer experience: 

Something you’ll notice even when taking a look at larger operators in the space is that websites can really be hit or miss. Sometimes, websites for operators are really modern with high quality photos, a lot of information, etc. Some are more simple or haven’t been updated in years. With the way that customers are searching for services, how you are presented on the internet is important. Remember who you are aiming at selling the private jet experience to. This is your end customer. Your site should be ready to present to your end customer at any time. 

One your site, you want to focus on conveying: 

• The interior experience of your plane 
• The organization of the experience, start to finish of flying with your staff 
• Key facts about the experience as a passenger: Wifi, space available, catering, alcohol, service, etc. 
• Your options in terms of aircraft 

On Avium, our platform allows you to create a small gallery for each plane that appears when they review your quote. 

Take advantage of SEO: 

When it comes to service and reaching new customers first, SEO is the baseline for organic leads. You have to appear where they’re searching or they won’t’ find you outside of a referral. Sites with strong SEO are well positioned for their target market and appear when the customer they’re seeking to attract searches for specific key terms. SEO is a web of different tactics and checkboxes to cover on your site, so some help professionally is best but there are a few things you can do to better your search visibility: 

• Have a faster page speed (ask you developer or an expert to take care of this) 
• Utilize keywords that your target customer would search: ex. “private jet flights Napa Valley”, place these keywords in metadata, paragraphs, blogs, etc. 
• Make sure your site is engaging: do users know where to click once they land? Is it interesting?
• Blog, put up content, update your site regularly. It can’t hurt to be continually adding content and context for Google to work with 
• Use snippets: snippets are something you can easily add to your site with a plugin or help of your developer. Google uses them to find the best web page suggestion for a search. You want your “snippets” to be full of the right keywords for searches. Here is an example: 

Use reviews and ratings to your advantage: 

Recently, Google and other search engines have put an important emphasis on reviews. Living in Amazon’s world, customers have now put reviews and ratings at the top of their list in terms of determining not just what service to purchase but which companies they want to engage with. Display reviews on your site; on your homepage if possible. You can also include reviews in your search listing on Google. 

Leverage social media in ways that make sense and deliver results:

It’s commonplace (especially in the luxury industry) for companies to do social just to do social; because it feels necessary. You should definitely be on social but not in the dark. Posting consistently is not enough to reach the right audience and get private charter leads back to your site. You’ll need to have a clear understanding of who sends in most of your quotes: travel managers, corporate assistants, travelers themselves, etc. Knowing your audience helps to narrow down where they are present on social and how to target them. If you mostly work B2B, being present on business-focused sites like LinkedIn is vital to getting that exposure. If your leads come from luxury travelers themselves, building your presence more in the consumer realm of social media is important. You’ll want to be visible on Instagram, etc. and potentially leverage social ads and influencers like any other luxury product. 

Different operators have different audiences and customers. A great example of finding your audience on social is JetSuiteX. They made a big effort to focus on influencers and media to reach their customers who were travelers themselves. This probably wouldn’t be optimal for a part 135 operator who works with corporate travelers through their companies. 

Here’s our Instagram. We do a little of both: industry and fun. We’re both operator and traveler facing. 

Take a luxury approach to brand and image across platforms: 

Either way, your product is a luxury. Yes, for corporations, private charter is a necessity and also practical, but it’s still a luxury product. No matter if you’re in front of a traveler or a B2B customer, presenting the experience of luxury is likely to establish a better first impression of not only a positive experience but also safety and organization. Websites and social profiles are the new storefronts. The nicest stores always get the most attention – no matter how small the inventory. 

Czech operator JetBee’s profile on Avium with high quality photography: 

Be intentional about email marketing: 

Email marketing tools have made it really easy to send out mass emails and accept 1-2% success rates. Email marketing can be so much more effective than that. A lot of operators like to spam about dead legs which can be effective but wouldn’t it be better to drive more charter requests?  

Send better emails, not dead leg spam: 

Sending emails about positive improvements to your fleet, sharing recent routes you’ve flown passengers, and always affirming the receiver that your team is available as a concierge for their needs helps to keep you an option to valuable customers. 

 How to better target:

List building and list organization is important to being able to communicate properly with leads. 

Make it a point on your website to collect emails and have email entries separate themselves by: 

• Luxury travel manager/agency
• B2B corporate travel manager
• Traveler 

 This way, you get better tweak different email blasts to match the needs and interests of your leads. Customers notice when there is some personalization added to your communications. It keeps you the number one option when a need for charter arises. 

Register your fleet on platforms like Avium to get quotes sent to you:

Using other tools and platforms to get qualified requests sent in directly, no work necessary, to your charter team is an option that should be a no brainer. BUT this can be time consuming. With Avium, you create a profile and register your fleet to get targeted requests. 

Here’s how Avium works: 

1. Your register your fleet and complete your profile
2. When a traveler/manager sends in a request, Avium determines if your fleet is a match for the route and aircraft type needed. 
3. Requests get sent directly to your sales team 
4. Your team can send in quotes in seconds 
5. You can see the offers of competing operators as well and send more competitive quotes 
6. Your quote is sent with your aircraft information and photos to the traveler. 
7. Travelers select your quote and pay.

Register for free to get tailored private charter requests to your sales team: